An Azo-Bridged Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal with Highly Enhanced Second and Third Harmonic Generation

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• 作者：Yongqiang Zhang ; Josu Ortega ; Ute Baumeister ; C茅sar L. Folcia ; Gerardo Sanz-Enguita ; Christopher Walker ; Sof铆a Rodriguez-Conde ; Jesus Etxebarria ; Michael J. O鈥機allaghan ; Kundalika More
• 刊名：The Journal of the American Chemical Society
• 出版年：2012
• 出版时间：October 3, 2012
• 年：2012
• 卷：134
• 期：39
• 页码：16298-16306
• 全文大小：469K
• 年卷期：v.134,no.39(October 3, 2012)
• ISSN：1520-5126

文摘

A laterally azo-bridged trimer ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) incorporating a strong chromophore along its polar axis was synthesized and characterized by polarized-light optical microscopy , differential scanning calorimetry , two-dimensional X-ray diffraction analysis, electro-optical measurements, and nonlinear optical (NLO) investigations. This mesogen exhibits a thermodynamically stable enantiotropic SmC* phase and a bistable ferroelectric switching in a surface stabilized cell with bookshelf geometry. It gives the resonance-enhanced d₂₂ coefficient of 28 pm V^鈥? (位 = 1.369 渭m) for second harmonic generation (SHG), the largest NLO susceptibility reported to date for all FLCs. At the same wavelength, a new type of helicoidal phase matching assisted by the helical SmC* structure was identified. When the second harmonic wavelength of 780 nm is far away from the resonance wavelength (位_max = 572 nm), the d₂₂ coefficient is reduced to 6.8 pm V^鈥? (位 = 1.56 渭m). In addition to a strong SHG activity, the trimer also shows a strong third harmonic generation (THG) with an estimated third-order nonlinear susceptibility of 蠂⁽³⁾ = 3 脳 10^鈥?1 esu (位 = 1.56 渭m), among the largest 蠂⁽³⁾ value reported from THG measurements for liquid crystals. This work enables viable applications of FLCs in nonlinear optics and offers an innovative approach to develop new FLCs with larger NLO strength.